Low-Calorie Chicken Salad, Tuna Salad, Egg Salad & More

My family and I love creamy deli-style salads: chicken, tuna, egg... You name it! Do you have any ideas for making them guilt-free, or any recipes you can share?

Gimme the Scoop

Hi Gimme the Scoop,

There are a lot of easy ways to lighten up your scoopable salads and, of course, I've got a ton of recipes for you. Read on...

DIY: Ingredient 101

Protein: For chicken, go with chopped or shredded skinless breast meat. You can either DIY (click for an easy guide to shredding chicken), or buy it precooked. For tuna, I like albacore packed in water. If you're making a portion for just yourself, check out the single-serve packets from StarKist. There are even flavored varieties! As for egg salad, I stick with hard-boiled egg whites -- click for how-to info.

Creamy Condiments: The key here is to use light or fat-free versions. Sometimes, I'll use a little of both to keep the stats down and the flavor up! Light sour cream and light mayo are obvious go-tos, but I also love fat-free plain Greek yogurt. It's thick and tangy, and it doesn't taste fat-free at all. Another favorite? Hellmann's/Best Foods Dijonnaise. So creamy and zesty, and it has only 5 fat-free calories per teaspoon.

Veggies: A great time saver? Bagged broccoli slaw! It's a mix of shredded broccoli stems, carrots, and red cabbage, and it ROCKS. Just give it a rough chop if you like your salad more scoopy and less slaw-like. Pretty much all other fresh veggies are fair game too. Try chopped celery, red bell peppers, and sweet onion. Wanna get a little fancy? Use jarred roasted red peppers (packed in water; then drained and chopped), sweet corn kernels (canned or thawed from frozen), or pouched sun-dried tomatoes (if jarred and packed in oil, just drain and rinse 'em).

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*The PointsPlus® values for these products and/or recipes were calculated by Hungry Girl and are not an endorsement or approval of the product, recipe or its manufacturer or developer by Weight Watchers International, Inc., the owner of the PointsPlus® registered trademark.